2025-08-31-annual-report - Glengormley Irish Traditional Music School

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The trustees present their Trustees' Annual Report prepared in accordance with Charities SORP 2015 (FRS102) and the unaudited financial statements for the period ended 31 August 2025, also prepared in accordance with the aforementioned Statement of Recommended Practice and FRS 102.

Trustees

The trustees who served during the period are as follows:

Ray Morgan Chair Kevin Scott Vice chair Roisin McLaughlin Secretary Conor O’Kane Treasurer Kate Walsh John Reynolds Colm McCann Declan McFaul Christina Murphy Beth McComish Chris Donohoe Siobhan Dunne

There have been no changes to the trustees from the date of the financial statements to date the accounts have been approved.

Structure, Governance and Management

The school is an unincorporated charity and was registered with the Charity Commission of Northern Ireland on 22 February 2016. The charity number is NIC104819.

The charity is governed by its constitution and is managed by the Trustees, who are noted above. We also have a musical director who manages the musical aspects of the school. The charity’s main function is to provide tuition on a weekly basis in traditional Irish music. We have two terms, a 15-week first term which runs from September to January, and a 12week second term which runs from February to May. We are also involved in numerous musical events in and around Newtownabbey and North Belfast throughout the year.

The charity’s principal address is:

17 Hollybrook Heights Newtownabbey Co Antrim BT36 7XS

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Objectives and Activities

We are a voluntary, community-based arts organisation now in our 20th year. The school was established to promote, for the benefit of the inhabitants of Glengormley and North Belfast and its environs, without distinction of age, sex, race, political, religious or other opinions, the education and training of people in all areas of Irish traditional music skills and musicianship and to promote appreciation for and knowledge of Irish traditional music for the benefit of the general public.

The school provides high quality traditional music tuition in the following instruments: Fiddle; Tin Whistle; Flute; Uileann Pipes; Button Accordian; Concertina; Banjo; Mandolin; Bodhran; Guitar; Harp and Ballad singing. The term included 27 classes in total which are held in Edmund Rice College, Hightown Road, Glengormley on Thursday evenings between 7.30pm and 9.30pm. Every pupil is given the opportunity to play in a group setting between 8.15pm and 8.45pm. We hold concerts at Christmas and in May, with a music Feis in March.

There are also weekend workshops held in March, a week-long workshop in Donegal held annually in July, and a Traditional Music Summer Scheme held in August. The school is also involved in numerous community events in Newtownabbey and North Belfast. GSOTM has taken the lead in the development of Belfast Summer School of Traditional Music/Belfast Tradfest with our pupils making up 25 % of all pupils attending the Tradfest and 70% of Volunteers coming from GSOTM. We are very proud of the lead we have taken in this. We are very much planning for the coming year and a return to face-to-face classes and engaging in our full range of social and community activities.

Achievements and Performance

We completed our first term in January 2025 and the second term in May. We had approx. 330 pupils (350 attending classes) who signed up for our first term. As expected, we had 270 pupils in the second term. We held our end-of-term concert in May with over 200 pupils and 300 of an audience. We held a further end of term concert in the Duncairn arts centre for our older pupils and for our groups in June as we wanted to make sure that we showcased in detail our very successful and strong musicians/groups.

We continued with our Grupa Ceols, we had over 60 young people taking part in weekly practices. The 3 groups all entered the Antrim Fleadh in May and were successful in going forward to the Ulster Fleadh in Warrenpoint in July. Our groups did not place. We had a very successful Antrim Fleadh in the individual competitions (see results attached) and were very heavily represented at Ulster. Two of our pupils made it through to the All-Ireland Fleadh and one of them was successfully placed. We took over 40 of our pupils on a weekend residential by way of Fleadh preparation in Cushendall in March.

We held LCM exams in the school in April and had very successful results with all 31 participants receiving either a distinction or a merit.

We held a very successful trip to Sitges, Barcelona, Spain in October 2024 with a group of 30 musicians and parents taking part and performing at a Irish Music festival. We held a very successful trip to Donegal in July 2025 with 30 of our pupils taking part in a week of traditional music workshops. We held a Trad Music Summer scheme in August 2025 with 65 young people taking part and 15 volunteers.

We hold two weekly traditional music seisiuns in a local bar for adults and older teenagers. We have held monthly seisiuns for young people from throughout Belfast at 2 Royal Ave with 50-60 participants

We have been involved in numerous community events, including monthly visits to the Hospice and occasional visits to the children’s hospice.

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We held a Primary school performance opportunity at 2 Royal Ave in December and again in March as part of Belfast City Councils St Patrick’s celebrations and a further event held in June. There are now 26 Primary schools who are involved in this event who have either taken part and performed or intend to take part in the future. Several secondary schools are now requesting to be involved in this activity. We are exploring ways to involve them in this or in a stand-alone event for secondary schools.

The GSOTM community were heavily involved in Belfast Tradfest in July, as pupils in the summer school, as volunteers in the organisation and as performers as part of our performance group, as individual musicians and as participants in seisuins.

We continue to be involved in providing peripatetic support to a number of primary and secondary schools in Newtownabbey and North Belfast

Financial Review

The school had an operating surplus for the year of £1,153. The school continued to generate the majority of its income from tuition and membership fees, this source of income increased by £110 during the year. Fundraising income decreased during the year from £1,182 to £574. As with previous years, teaching costs formed the most significant outgoing during the year.

The school continued to receive financial support from The Arts Council NI, receiving grants of £5,590 during the year, decreasing from £22,025 during the year. The grant was fully expended and are grateful for this continued support in enabling them to fulfil their aims and objectives on an annual basis. The school ended the financial year with an unrestricted reserves balance of £14,845.

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Trustees’ Responsibilities Statement

The trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Annual Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

The law applicable to charities in Northern Ireland requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources of the charity for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:

select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently.
observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP 2015 (FRS 102);
make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent.
state whether applicable accounting standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements.
prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.

The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008, the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015, and the provisions of the trust deed. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

By Order of the Board

Ray Morgan Trustee

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